TheGreatEscapade

Well Dave is fully fed and watered so i reckon i can risk making an entry. Where was i? oh yes, Rotorua.

We went on a day trip to Waitomo, which has a massive underground cave system. I thought it would be perfectly pleasant to go on a guided walk through them, or something equally unrisky, but no, David insisted that we wanted to do something called Black Water Rafting. It sounded interesting so we signed up. It wasn't until we got there that i found out it involved a 40 metre (13ish storeys) abseil into the caves! I am absolutely terrified of abseiling, I remember trying to it once with hannah's dad about two metres from the ground when i was eleven, or at least i remember totally freaking out.
However, we'd paid, so i girded myself. It was horiffic, my heart was coming out of my throat the whole way down, but i was muchly proud of myself for managing it. Was very pleased to find out Davey hated it more than i did, felt i'd got my own back a little! We wandered through the dark water caves for a few minutes and then our guide clipped us too a long zipwire and sent us careering through the cave in pitch black! Probably scarier than the abseiling actually. But fun. Then we threw ourselves off a big ledge into the water about 5 metres underneath with a rubber ring under our arses, or rather everyone else did, i wimped out as our guide warned us that we had to land with our legs up or our spine would come out the back of our necks, which may have put me off slightly...
So, once we were in the freezing water, we paddled on our arses through cathedral-high craggy caves, filled with thousands of glow worms, though we were a bit busy paddling to take any notice of it, so after we'd got a few hundred metres, we all hooked ourselves together with our feet and were dragged back the way we'd come in total silence with our headtorches off. b-e-a-youtiful. After that we climbed our way up through "The Passage of Watery Demise and Decomposing Sheep" which involved scaling though tiny holes and up massive waterfalls back to the blazing sun. Well worth the abseil i say.

Then for our last Kiwi Experience bus ride into Auckland, we were mighty glad to see the end of them!

This hostel computer won't let me allow a pop-up which is a shame as i had a stonking photo for you.

The first night in Auckland we stayed in a complete stoner's dump of a hostel, got out of there as fast as we could to a fantastic one three doors down. Been running out of NZ dollars so haven't done anything ground-breaking as far as i can remember. We had a great night yesterday, we went for a lovely Thai with Rosie and Cathy, David's aunt and her partner who live over here, you lucky buggers. this was followed by yummy ice creams, which i apparently managed to throw down my new jeans i discovered this morning. And i call Dave the mucky pup! Anyway, thanks guys!
Today, after a trip to the hospital to pick up my mail (i'm a regular there, they hold it for me) we've wandered around everywhere trying to get hold of Fijian Dollars and surrepitiously buying birthday presents when we think the other isn't watching!

Not sure when i'll next get to a computer, have no idea whether Fijian islands bother with internet access!

Ooh, two minute beep. Cheerio! xx

Hee-Hee!

After Wanaka we cruised into Queenstown, via the first bungy in the world. I decided it wasn't actually as scary as I'd thought it might be, only 49m but 150 bucks so decided not to bother there (wimp!). Queenstown was basically backpackers and rich homeowners central, but in a very pretty location by the coldest lake in New Zealand, it was a lovely day so we wandered a bit out of town and chilled by the lake for an afternoon. That night we stumbled across a 'horizontal bungy' in the bar below our hostel. Very amusing, it entails being attatched to a bungy cord, charging along the barroom, grabbing a yard glass, running/getting dragged along on your butt to the other side where you have to scull the beer as fast as you can, the winner getting a 100buck bar tab! hilarious. scotty our bus driver managed it in 23 seconds by some amazing feat.

So the next day was along to Te Anau in a minibus, next a stupidly long lake at a stupidly fast speed. We stayed at yet another fantastic family-run hostel, the quality in New Zealand is miles ahead of Oz. In this one, we checked in, after which the owner showed us into the kitchen and said 'grab a warm scone!' Anyone who knows me well will know this is just about the best thing anyone can say to me, apart from maybe 'can i scratch your back, all day long?'

The next morning at 6 (gah) two friendly guides picked us up for our Fiordland Wilderness Experience day-long kayak on Miford Sound. It was utterly fantastic in every way - the scenery, the wildlife, the company, the atmosphere, the sun. We arrived back in Te Anau in the evening very happy and chilled out people. Relaxing on the grass in the middle of nowhere with tea and biscuits and a group of people you feel like you've known your whole life, definitely the way to live. The attitude i'd love to have permenantly, but i know as soon as i'm back i'll slip back into the inevitably hurried, rushed, unsavoured life so many of us live too much of the time. Ah well - i shall just have to hold it off for as long as possible by being ultra cool and tuning you all into my fantabulous mindset, then we shall all live honestly, relaxed and upfront with each other! Ha.

So after not nearly enough time in Te Anau we trundled on back to Queenstown, and the next day, Christchurch. The following morning we set off up north to Kaikoura (Kai - Eat, Koura - Crayfish) hoping to get in a bit of dolphin and whale spotting over our three days there. Unfortunately the weather was pretty crappy for most of the time apart from the last day, when it was too late to book on any of the watery activites! We were staying in a fantastic family-feel hostel reccommended by Charly for it's hot tub. So we holed ourselves up in the hammock for a day or so. On the last night we had just warmed up our toesies in bed when this terrifyingly scary wailing siren started up, definitely loud enough to wake up the whole village. I was sure there was a sensible reason for it, and we'd heard it before in Westport without anything terrible happening, but this carried on for AGES and was indescribably haunting, so we thought maybe it was time to get out of bed and find out. The whole hostel was up waiting for it to stop, was apparently to rouse the fire brigade, though apparently it also starts as a tsunami warning, not that anyone will know it's anyone will know it's not a fire! Maybe it plays a different siren for different emergencies.
The next morning i woke up about half 5 desperate for a pee (it's terrible, i keep doing this, i'm getting ancient) and discovered the most breathtaking sunrise, so i pulled on some clothes and wandered down to the beach to watch.

A friendly lady from Australia happened to be doing the same so we wandered right along the beach chatting about nothing in particular for a long time, until her knees gave in infact! Nice start to a scorching day.

From Kaikoura it was up to Picton and then onto the ferry over to Wellington, i felt very sick once we got onto open water, don't know why i'm going to Fiji! Wellington looked quite acceptable but i'm afraid to say i spent most of our time there asleep! I needed to catch up but i do regret missing the museum there which sounds pretty amazing. Never mind, next time.

From Wellington we careered right up to Taupo as we have been fast running out of time. We'd booked a skydive and were getting rather excited about it, but it was cancelled due to low cloud, again! Damnit. The next morning before our next booked time we wandered out of town towards a place where a hot spa waterfall drops into a cold river and lay around in it for an hour or two, it was quite a strange experience but very pleasant and relaxing! We gave the weather most of the day to clear enough for a skydive, but no luck, so we thought we'd do a bungy instead!

I feel sick just thinking about it again! I wasn't particularly nervous waiting for it to happen, probably because the guy before us was on his stag night, dressed as a leprechaun (St Paddy's day) stark naked underneath the green dress! haha. I can definitely say that seeing a naked english man hanging suspended upside-down on a bungy cord is not a pleasant sight, but it certainly took my mind off the utterly idiotic activity i was about to subject myself to. I'm more scared thinking about it having done it, though i will say i am glad i hadn't eaten anything recently, as i think my trousers would have had to be thrown away afterwards. We decided to do a tangem bungy as then we could afford to buy one video of it between us, which was a good decision as i don't think i would have been able to chuck myself off that platform! David pulled, i followed close afterwards, injuring his eardrum on the way down! Would definitely do it again though, it's a massive rush, you feel invincible the rest of the day once your legs stop wobbling everywhere!

So after parting with 100 odd bucks for a couple of seconds of stark terror it was off to Rotorua for some eggy escapades! Rotorua is an amazing place, the crust of the earth underneath us is only a couple of k's thick so the water underground running underground heats up to very high temperatures and then bursts out of many geysers and suchlike, forming bubbling mud pits and natural hot mineral pools. It's rather fantastic to watch and swim in, but the process also produces hydrogen sulphide, which smells very strongly of rotten egg. It dosen't bother the locals, or David, very much but i am indeed my father's daughter, and a slight whiff of it results in a very loud and long chain of retches from me!
The Maori population in Rotorua is over 70% which is much higher than much of New Zealand, so the place is natually quite a tourist trap for assorted Maori activites. We spent a very happy night at Tamaki Maori Village, where locals show you a little of Maori history, culture, mythology etc in songs dances and displays. I was having too much fun too take many pictures, but i'll put this one on just for Anna which i know she'll love for her personal fantasies.....

If you're wondering about the stange positiong, i think we were being shown traditional tattooing methods.
They also put on a fantastic hangi for us. The hangi is the tradtional Maori meal, in which the food is cooked in a big hole, steamed by very very hot rocks for about 4 hours. It was bloody fantastic, Dave had 8 plates!

Yesterday was fantastic but i cannot describe it now as the boy is complaining (yet again!) of hunger. I actually do not know where he puts it all!

Hope you're all well. Oh and Stace, Dave says it was way too hot to camp but i'm sure he is just being a wimp, everyone else manages it every year. I may well be joining you in it yet!

Yay I'm listening to Ambulance Ltd for the first time since home cause Davey forgot his mp3 charger. Tis makin' me happy. Tra la la!

Aaaanywaay. South Island! Well we're back in Christchurch now after a quick loop, down the west coast, into Queenstown via Wanaka, and then back to the coast at Milford Sound via Te Anau (Tay Arnoo) and back to Christchurch via Queenstown again. I hope I remember everything...

Well we got up early the saturday before last to catch our kiwi experience bus. To my surprise it wasn't a gigantic lime green coach but a khaki minibus driven by a lovely lady named Flea, who took us over the dramatic Lewis Pass at a rate of about 300kph to Murchison where we did in fact catch the gigantic lime green coach. This was driven by Scotty, who was indescribably beautiful, a real pleasure to watch in the rear view mirror for a week! We weren't looking forward to catching the bus as we were expecting it to be full of loud Brit's. It was, but after the initial shock we found there were a handful of lovely people who made the trip perfectly bearable in the end.

We stopped on the journey to do some jet boating. I can't be bothered to describe it myself, you can do it if you're interested. But it was very fun! until a guy smashed his head in, then i almost fainted at the blood!

Our first stop was Westport, a western town without that much in it to be honest but it had a lovely sleepy atmosphere and our hostel was fantastic (first YHA to be anything special) and very helpful. That night we were so busy talking to people we missed the coach lift down to the beach where we were making a big bonfire, so the hostel owner offered to give us a lift down there. Very kind.

So after a too short stop there we were on our way south to Franz Josef with a night at the 'Poo Pub' - description to come later. At Greymouth we had a supermarket stop, and as we were getting off the coach David casually said "you did get the documents wallet out of the safe didn't you?" CRAP!! We'd left them behind the desk at the YHA. After a while of panicking and me shouting at David who calmly apologised even though it was only about 78% his fault, Scotty said he would get the driver behind us to pick it up, and get it to us by the second night in Franz. This was a slight relief, but i was still pretty worried, it had our passports, tickets, travellers cheques, and rail cards, along with all my sterling (140) and all my dollars (800). Oops! In the end, all was fine, we got it back intact. Phew.

Oh yes we stopped at this totally random visitor's attraction, the Bushman's Centre. Basically all there was to see there was a totally depressing deer-culling video, two live possums and two very fat pigs. Oh and a very grumpy owner, Bushman Pete. I can't really describe properly how creepy and odd this place/guy was, you'll just have to go their yourself! Skinned possums everywhere.....

So anyway, the Poo Pub! I wish i'd sneaked a photo of our 88 year old host, he was quite a sight! When we arrived he stumbled on to the bus and ranted at us for a good half hour, before letting us off to scurry out of his sight. The place was totally in the middle of nowhere but there was a nice beach on one side of us and a beautiful lake on the other. The bar at the pub was totally random, baseball caps and grey bras hanging form the ceiling, and polaroids literally wallpapering the place, depicting every kiwi bus that has been thought there in the past 15 years (3500! No wonder he was a bitter bastard.) That night there was a fancy dress party in the pub, with the theme being to come of something with the same initial letter as your surname. David made a fantastic elephant mask but I was feeling grumpy with the British people so we went for a night walk on the beach instead, and played with a very friendly cat.

The next morning when we were planning on leaving Lez, (our fogey host) hopped on the bus in a mad fit, telling us to get off, the cops were here! Eek. Apparently some drunkards had stumbled down to the lake, thrown bottles everywhere and woken up some (un)happy campers. Sooo...after Lez had called us his worst bus in 5 years, this would be a good time to make a quick exit, no? The bus broke down! Argh!

So anyway, we got out of there alive, that's all you need to know. A few missing digit but who needs them all anyway?

We went on a nice walk that day.

I'm taking ages, must speed up.

Oh oh one for Charly, something I remembered from your diary!

He was rather embarrassed also!

So next stop Franz Josef, where there are two massive glaciers nearby, both of which you can walk up into or heli-hike onto. We decided to do a helihike though it was rather expensive. I'd read Charlotte's account of it and seen her pics so knew we just had to do it. So the the next morning when we woke up we skipped exitedly to the office of our guides, to find it had been cancelled due to low clouds! GUTTED! But anyway, we saved a bit of money, and had time left to do the half day hike from the bottom. It was still pretty amazing, though the snow was not nearly as clean or blue and we only saw a few blue ice caves. Bit disappointed, but the experience, and the view, was fantastic.

Oh and our guide turned out to be from Ambleside St Martins, the year below Gav! Random.

So, leaving Franz our bus broke down again! only this time on a very steep hill in the middle of nowhere, in the pouring rain. We sat in the coach for three hours minus driver, who'd hitched into the village again to attempt to find a mechanic, (at 7am) and were just about to suffocate when he eventually arrived back with one of the buses owned by the glacier guide company, who took us back into town for lunch and air. I had the best scone EVER! Yum yum.

David is rocking in hunger now so i must hurry.

Next was Wanaka, which was a great little town by a lake, would have loved to spend more time there had we had more time to spend.

After leaving Wanaka the next morning was Puzzling World, a rather strange attraction with a mammoth maze and other such time wasters. Great fun. Spot the odd one out.

"i'm hungry i'm hungry i'm hungry i'm hungry!" in my ear so i will leave you there, describe the other half of the trip next time.

tarra!

Churr Churr.

We're in Queenstown today after having a whirlwind tour of the mid-west coast of the south island with our guide Scotty, a Maori so hot he made your intestines ache. It has been lots of fun (most of it) but we're going off on our own for a few days down to Te Anau, and then onto Milford/Doubtful Sounds for a sea kayaking extravanganza! Our bus leaves in a few minutes so just a quick entry to say that i will do a proper update when i have plenty of time, have downloaded all the photos ready!

To everyone who has emailed, I'm sorry i haven't replied, i promise I've read and appreciated them all and will reply soon! Frankie, I've just realised I haven't email Lynne at all yet, she'll be worried i'm sure. If she hasn't already texted you could you possibly drop her a line apologising on our behalf, and promising she's my first priority!? Thanks chucken.

Sweet as Bro!

Sorry about the last entry, I was feeling a bit rough, but am much better now we're pretty busy. Melbourne was actually a fantastic place so i reckon it deserves an entry, if i can remember much. I'll add the photos that are already in the gallery for those who don't know how to find it (including me).

The atmosphere of the place was totally new compared to any other city i've been in. On an eveing, groups of friends and strangers old and new would congregate on street corners just to chat. There was a truly happening place on the river called Federation Sq, the wind up for the grand prix was taking place so it was pretty lively. The china town was also a brilliant experince, offering dirt cheap food, that wasn't too dirty. I tried kangaroo and crocodile! Wouldn't recommend either of them to be honest, though kangaroo was superior by far, croc's kinda like very chewy chicken. The whole place was great to wander by night.

We went on a long day trip down the Great Ocean Road, was rather stunning. There was a beach exactly like the Zante coves! Very impressed.

The neighbour's tour and night was quite an experience! Pin Oak St (Ramsay) is exactly as portrayed but much smaller than portrayed. The residents even get their own bodyguard to make sure us crazy pilgrims don't threaten their properties. I met Janelle who was lovely and had stupidly white teeth. The night was highly entertaining, basically lots of drunken British binge drinkers packed into a British bar! But the stars were very friendly.

Paul Robinson definitely made my night, there was this moment as everyone was getting very excited about seeing the cast that I saw this little sliding window into a strange room, so i scanned around me for bodyguard, climbed up onto a chair and slowly, very slowly slid it open. What should i see but Toadie and Steph having a little chat in the bar next door. One of them looked up so i quickly closed it and waited a minute or so. A minute later i opened it again and there was Stefan Davis peering straight at me! Ha ha. He looked craftily side to side to see if anyone had noticed me, then looked back and put his finger to his mouth..."Shh!!" I felt so badass. Fantastic.

St Kilda was a ball, felt rather like Brighton, though we did see a penguin! Oh and we had another little pilgrimage to Luna Park, the theme park when Izzy took Max when he was going mad. It was so crap, like actually worse than Frontier Land! But the candyfloss was fantastic, made me think of mum and hanni-bee.

We also saw a bloody fantastic performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream in the botanical gardens, with possoms skimming through the trees, fruit bat swooping across the stage and lots and lots of naughtiness.

I'm running out of time so will just say that Christchurch is also nice though we were getting tired of towns by then.

Yummy Yummy Fudge tour!

Will get up to date eventually!